Both in the United States and abroad, an increasing concern has arisen in recent years regarding the use of explosives in terrorist attacks.  UConn Castleman Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Yu Lei and graduate student Ying Wang have developed two patented sensing technologies to ultra-sensitively detect explosives in vapor phase, solid phase, and aqueous samples.  The patents are entitled “Explosives detection substrate and methods of using the same” (US Patent, 2012) and “Explosives detection polymer comprising functionalized polyamine polymers and methods of using the same” (US Provisional Patent, 2012). Various field tests for real applications are underway.

---